Happy Monday Gooners, and welcome to a new week, in which we are all hoping for some Bruno G news no doubt. But I sawe something yesterday suggesting that there was another Brazilian (not that one!) that we were interested in Joao Pedro from Chelsea.

Makes sense; Arsenal have an unhealthy obsession with getting that stain of a football club out of jail with big transfer fees. We did it with Noni, with Kai, we took Davidf Luiz off them, plus Petr Cech. So that wouldn’t have surprised me at all if we’d have had a little nibble at that one. He’s signed a new deal at Chelsea though, so that’s that one off the table – which I’m very ok with, if I’m honest.

I thought about it though. I mean, he certainly looks a lot more of an aesthetically pleasing footballer than, say Viktor Gyokeres. I tend to sway towards the Joao Pedro-type player, because I can ‘see’ what he does when he’s not bagging. But if you look at the two players’ numbers respectively, if you’re telling your striker to bag 20+ goals in a season, you’re probably saying that’s more likely with Big Vik. Last season, in 3,694 minutes, Joao Pedro bagged 20 goals. In 3,481 minutes – that’s 213 minutes, which works out to be just under two-and-a-half full 90-minute appearances, by the way – Viktor Gyokeres got 21 goals. Big Vik registered three assists to Joao Pedro’s nine, so perhaps that gives you an insight into the differences between the players, but it does show you what the identities of the two footballers is. Big Vik does goals and pretty much nothing else. There’s a little more to Joao Pedro’s game. The second question I had when thinking about this, is that Joao Pedro was in a pretty crappy Chelsea team, so does he bag more in a title-winning Arsenal side? Possibly.

As Arsenal fans, it’s really interesting to see that relationship between Big Vik and the fanbase. Some think he’s just a wardrobe that is useful for bundling in tap-ins against weaker sides; others see a player who is ultimately all end product, which is exactly what we missed the season before last. At 28 there’s not really a lot more for him to evolve into, and I’ll be honest he wasn’t my preferred choice last summer, but I do think he grew into the side more after the Christmas period. From January onwards he registered nine goals and an assist in the Premier League, including a brace at The Scum. In all competitions it was 14 goals and all three of his assists, so you could tell that after the initial bedding in period, he found his place, and his teammates were able to get him into positions to score. So for next season, we should definitely be looking for an uptick in the volume of goals if he’s able to contribute from the start.

Unless of course he’s moved on. It’s quite surprising – unless you’re somebody like Chelsea – to be moving a player on after one season. But with the departure of Norgaard for Everton, I don’t think any of us can rule it out, and there’s certainly been one or two rumours about Big Vik being used as a makeweight for certain clubs. Personally, I think he’ll stay. Arsenal are, as we all know, going ‘all in’ on Vini Junior and if that somehow does happen (I don’t know any Arsenal fans who are more than ’50/50′ on that one by the way), then I doubt the club are going to be looking to disrupt too many positions. But if we get noises this week that Vini Junior is set to stay at Real Madrid and sign a new deal…well…I do think Arsenal will pivot to Alvarez. Mikel Arteta will be sad if the Vini Jr door closes, but if you offer him a player he previously worked with, and Arsenal just decide to go big on the Argentinian, then I suspect one of the more regular players from last season is getting nudged out the door.

I guess the question would then become “Who?”. I think most of us thought it would be Gabby Martinelli who is on his way. His career seems to have plateaued, his goal contribution domestically last season wasn’t good enough, plus there seems to be a very public courting of left wingers this summer. But Julian Alvarez played almost exclusively as a number nine last season. Yes, we know he can play across the front three, but if you’re spending that kind of outlay that Atleti are demanding, you need to have a proper plan for the player. If that plan is centre-forward, then surely Martinelli has to stay and duke it out with Tzolis on the left? If it’s to be on the left – which I highly doubt because he’s played there a total of four times in the last four seasons by the way – then you would look to move on Big Vik. So despite some of these rumours about the Swede’s potential exit, it doesn’t feel very likely to me.

I do wonder how many minutes Gyokeres will get though. We saw Kai bag a very tidy goal in Girona on Saturday night, and the German was favoured for the Champions League final. If he can finally stay fit for most of the season, then it feels like he’s going to be Arteta’s main man for most of the bigger games, so what will that do for Gyokeres’ chances of hitting 20+ goals again? I’d wager it would be tough for him to bag that volume of goals with 1,000 minutes less in the season, for example, but if you’re looking at the Everton game at home as an example of where he can be dangerous – off the bench to grab the winner late, before the now-legendary Dowman goal – then maybe he can be the kind of marksman who finds a place in this Arsenal side as a rotational gunman? I think if you’re telling the Arsenal fans who are still a bit unsure on him, that he’s going to be used in that way, I think a lot of us would therefore prefer to keep Gyokeres around for another season.

One things for sure, though, I do think we need to keep Kai fit. If so, I think that’s massive for our chances of retaining the league.

Back tomorrow.